Why it’s important to address emotional needs in aged medical care

Caring for elderly patients goes beyond basic physical and medical treatment, and healthcare professionals need to address the mental, emotional and spiritual needs of their patients to ensure comprehensive care.

Failure to provide adequately for these needs impact negatively on a patient’s physical health and undermine a healthcare professional’s duty of care.

Staying social

Humans are social creatures by nature, and loneliness can breed depression, particularly among the elderly. Therefore, it is incredibly important to look after a person’s mental wellness. A huge component of emotional well-being is maintaining positive social relationships, with family, friends and the wider communities.

It’s important that care workers in charge of a loved one maintain these social links by building a friendship with the patient and providing warm, friendly and engaging conversation. Carers should also foster a patient’s general social activity by encouraging them to join local clubs and hobby groups, and facilitate these meeting in their daily care routine.

Compassionate care

Strong relationships are built on empathy and compassion, and a strong relationship between an elderly patient and his or her carer is important to assess various aspects of health. Caring people inc is an agency that has a compassionate care philosophy and addresses the emotional needs of patients as seriously as the medical and physical. Feeling cared for increases emotional well-being and peace of mind.

A patient is less likely to report feelings of pain, discomfort or anxiety to a caregiver who seems indifferent, and such issues are often symptomatic of a deeper underlying health issue. Patients with reduced mental faculties, particularly Alzheimer’s and dementia, have an increased need for compassionate care to ensure an increased quality of life.

Holistic treatment

Holistic care is a core component of modern nursing, and therapeutic care methods have a strong positive impact on overall patient health. Therapeutic treatment options such as music therapy, aromatherapy, yoga, and meditation work hand-in-hand with traditional medical efforts to preserve wellness of mind, body and spirit.

Person-centered care, responds to a patient’s spiritual needs rather than dismissing them as irrelevant is important for ongoing emotional well-being. Many very old people struggle to find meaning later in life and are searching for a sense of inner peace. These anxieties can’t simply be treated with a fresh prescription and need emotional and spiritual therapy, or the patient’s quality of life will suffer.

With the cost of healthcare growing and uncertainty around the future of the American medical system, we cannot underestimate the need for holistic, patient-first care. Patients are human and far more complicated than a checklist of symptoms, medications and treatments.

A good healthcare service should understand the importance of emotional wellbeing in patient care, particularly with the elderly and those with mental incapacities. Those considering care for their elderly parents, partners, relatives or other loved ones should ensure their service of choice understands this.